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spirit_n	body_n	life_n	soul_n	34,804	5	5.7811	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78144	A Christian standing & moving upon the true foundation. Or, A word in season. Perswading to sticke close to God, act eminently for God. In his present design a- against [sic] all discouragements, oppositions, temptations. Expressed in a sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons upon the day of their monthly fast, Octob. 25, 1648. By Matthew Barker, M.A. late preacher of the Gospel at James Garlick-hith, London, and now at Morclacke in Surrey.	Barker, Matthew, 1619-1698.	1648 (1648)	Wing B772; Thomason E468_40; ESTC R10148	45,680	72

be vigilant in watching Vita hominum vigilia said Pliny to Vespasian I am sure it is now one great worke of your life to be watchfull for this poor Kingdome and would you approve your selves true watchmen then watch First accurately Watch-men must not be blinds as Israels was Isa 56. 10. They must have a piercing sight that they may be able to see into the bottome and depth of things that they may see snares that are laid in private and may not be deluded with fair pretexts and overtures to the betraying of their trust and the good of those for whom they watch As also that they may be able to see afarre off Watch-men stand upon walls and high places to discover dangers approaching at a distance so are you this Kingdomes watcbmen to discover evils that may come upon it not only for the present but many yeares hence You are to provide not only that we may for a few yeares or in this generation enjoy the Gospel our peace and liberties but to settle them upon such a bottome as that posterity may rejoyce in them as well as our selves Lastly Watch men must have accurate sight to spie out the fittest season for every action that may be done at one time with ease which at another will not with much difficulty And surely Sirs had there been this wisdom on all sides to improve seasons the work of this Kingdome might have been nearer finishing then now it is But this is our comfort though men may misse their seasons God alwayes doth lay hold of his Secondly watch faithfully the unfaithfulness of a watchman brings all in danger If he be corrupted and comply with the Enemie he may doe more hurt then the whole Army Thirdly watch with selfe-denyall A watch-man must endanger himselfe for the publique safety hee must deny himselfe in his ease in his estate in his private occasions and interests that he may be serviceable to the publique Let Adrian's motto be writ upon all your hearts non mihi sed populo for the people not my selfe That the dangers of the Kingdome are not yet over we have too evident reason to believe and therefore let your eye be still open and keepe strict watch lest we should be surprized by them Thus I have done onely if any where you finde my language more particular and importunate then ordinary I desire that the present exigence of the time and your affaires may plead my excuse I did desire to be faithfull in the worke and in the free discharge o● mine owne conscience I shall endeavour to sit downe and rejoyce amidst all the censures and reproaches of men Who are the true friends and enemies of peace God will in a short time discover Some things which I had prepared to speake I was constrained to omit by reason of the time and I am here bold to present them to your eyes together with those which I have already presented to your eare Which that they may bee as A SACRED ANCHOR to establish you as HEAVENLY FIRE to enflame your hearts into an higher pitch of true zeal and resolution for God and this Kingdome shall be the continuall prayer Of him Who desires to be found a faithfull Steward in the Lords worke MATTH BARKER A Christian standing and moving upon the true foundation Expressed in a SERMON Preached before the Honorable House of COMMONS October 25. 1648. 1 Cor. 15. last Wherefore my beloved brethren be yee stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the worke of the Lord as knowing that your labour is never in vaine in the Lord. THE Apostle Paul the Penman of this Epistle was a great Proficient both in the lower schoole of humane learning and in the upper schoole of divine knowledge and where have we a clearer discovery of it then in this Chapter His knowledge in things divine appeares in the heigth and heavenlinesse of his matter he doth in this Chapter unfold these foure Mysteries 1. The Mystery of Christs resurrection as being not alone that whereby he himselfe did overcome death and triumphantly entred into a state of perfect righteousnesse life and glory but also that whereby his whole body hath received an assuring pledge of and mysticall in●e● into the same state And that we read from verse 12. to 24. 2. He unfolds the Mystery of Christs Kingdom and that in two particulars First in the end or finall cause of it and that either Mediate as the putting downe all rule all authority and power and the utter abolishing of all enemies or ultimate That God may be all in all There are many enemies that lift up themselves above God in the world and doe cast vailes upon his glory that they themselves may appeare and shine forth now the great end of Christs reigne is to destroy these enemies and remove these vailes That God may be all in all And this you have set forth from verse 24. to 28. 2. In the period or expiration of it this Kingdome according to the forme of its present administration is to cease and to empty it selfe and expire into the Kingdome of the Father and this you have partly in the 24th and partly in the 28th verse This is the second Mystery The Third is the Mystery of the Saints resurrection in their owne persons which the light of nature cannot reach and which some even of the wisest among the Vid. Plin. nat Hist lib. 7. Cap. 45. heathens have not only denyed but exploded this he first proves from verse 12. to 39. Then describes from ver 39. to 45. 4. The fourth is the Mystery of the first and second Adam which he sets in opposition to each other severall wayes in this Chapter 1. In respect of their principles vers 45. The first man Adam was made a living soule the last Adam was made a quickning spirit The first man had a principle of divine life within himselfe but had not a stock or treasury The Ap●stle-doth here alude to these two expressions in Gen. 2. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an●ma vivens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritus vitarum of life the first man was made a living soule onely but the second Adam having the fulnesse of the Godhead in himselfe is a store-house of lives and from him life breakes forth upon his whole body the second Adam was made a quickning Spirit 2. In respect of Order vers 46. Howbeit that was not first which is spirituall but that which is naturall and afterward that which is spirituall The first Adam and the first state of things under him was naturall God tooke pleasure in them and received glory from them according to those naturall perfections wherein he did create them but afterwards the second Adam comes and gathers up all things into a spirituall estate even into himselfe that now all that delight which God puts forth upon his creature and all that glory he receives from it is alone in this second Adam the Lord

the skin and cask of Anaxarchus but you cannot touch Anaxarchus himselfe A Christian seeth his treasure his portion his life his heaven his all so secured in God so set out of the reach of the world as that he is not shaken when the world is powring out floods of wrath and violence against him Hereby is the soule established also against the smiles of the world this casts a dark vaile upon all earthly glory that we may say of it as the Apostle of the administration of the Law 2 Cor. 3. 10. That it had no glory by reason of the glory which excelleth As by the shining of the greater light of the Sunne all other light is contracted and retires into that body wherein it is placed so doth the appearance of this higher glory in Christ shrinke up contract and even annihilate all other beside it self that now the great things of the world appeare as small things the pretious things of the world as mean and worthlesse the high things of the world are now degraded and come down from that height wherein they stood before and are brought to lie under the feet of a Saint so that now the soule truly and strongly pursues after God his glory in Christ having caught her up into such a blessed captivity to it selfe as that the glistering beauties of the world doe no whit divert or retard her in her pursuit after it and she remaines unshaken yea even invincible by reason of her immixt and immutable love of this divine beauty and her full propension to that Dionys Arcopag de Coelest hierarch cap. 2 which is truly desirable as Dionysius the Arcopagite divinely speakes Yea she beholds all that finite particular deceived good in the creature to be but a low communion of the infinite originall and universall good that is in God and therefore is not called of by the stream from the fountain by the particular from the universall by the finite from the infinite Moses was not tempted by Heb. 11. the glory of Pharaohs Court seeing him that is invisible and having respect to the recompence of reward And the Lord Jesus having his eye still fixed upon the beauties and glory of the Godhead did by this overcome the temptation of Satan and the allurements of the world And according to that degree that any Christian is brought up to this sight of God in Christ doth he thus remaine stedfast both against the frownes and flatteries of the world 6. By this appearance of God in Christ is the soule establisht also against the darknesse of divine dispensations by this she comes to see that this infinite love in God to her is not cannot be founded upon any thing in her selfe for she beholds nothing but vilenesse and emptinesse in her selfe but upon the unchangable righteousnesse the infinite and invalluable merit of the Lord Jesus and therefore how ever the dispensations of God to her are changed and she findes her selfe changed yet by this she is established kept from sinking because the foundation of love is still the same and how ever the face of God speakes wrath and displeasure yet the mystery the designe of God in Christ speakes unchangable love yea she can by faith behold her selfe enjoying a fulnesse of love joy and glory in Christ while she can behold and feele none of these in her selfe Vpon this account also is she established under all the strange acts of providence to the Church abroad seeing his love to her setled upon such imūtable grounds that he cannot cast her off and that this love still followes her in every condition and will certainly worke her out of all her wants darkness distresses conflicts into perfect fulnesse perfect light salvation and victory 7. Lastly by this appearance is the soule established against strange doctrines for by it she comes to see truths especially fundamentall as it is in Jesus shee comes to taste its sweetnesse to see its beautie and to be convinced of its authenticknesse by the demonstration of divine light and therefore will hold it as invaluable treasure against the gates of hell As that Martyr spake I cannot dispute for my religion but I can die for my religion Such a Christian is able to fetch Arguments not alone from the Letter without but from the Spirit within to confute Errors by He is able experimentally to assert such truths as these That we are justified by grace alone That there is no power in man to good supernaturall That the grace of God works irresistably That the union between Christ and the soule is inseperable And that a full assurance of eternall life is attainable These and many such like can the soule put her seale to and therefore holds them fast So that holinesse and communion with God are better supportes of Truth in the world than any Coercive decrees or wrangling disputes and reasonings The Letter of truth may delight the fancy but it is the Spirit that makes it relish in the soule the ointment doth not smel til the box is opened nor the Jewel shine whiles it lies in the Cabinet Truth must be unvailed in spirituall light before the soule can prize it or hold it fast Thus have we spoken to the first Act. 2. The Second is an act of mortification the flesh in a Christian is the fountaine of all unstedfastnesse the more this is cruicified the more is he established and at peace The Spirit would alwayes lie and live in the bosome of God the onely Centre of true rest did not the flesh call it off and so disquiet it now God is daily bringing the soul into this stedfast frame by crucifying it to the flesh and gathering it up into his owne unchangable life and Spirit And therefore Mysticall Divines * Di●imus itaque assiduis ad deū connitendo aspirationibus aque totalibus contrariorli mortificationibus et abolutionibus homines Spirituales status hujus de●formis immutabilitate pot●ri Isagoge Corderit ad Myst Theol. Cap. 5. to bring up the soul to that Deiforme state which they speake of which is the perfect conjunction of the soule with God and the enjoyment of an eternall Sabbath in him they first prescribe a daily mortification for the soule cannot enjoy this peacefull conjunction with God till the unquiet principle of the flesh is crucified in her And she especially is crucified to these three things which are causes of much unstedfastnesse A sensuall life Private ends Proper will 1. A sensual life in this life is the soule hurried up and downe changing according to the severall changes and motions of times and things about her as they rise and fall ebb or flow so doth the soule of what Complexion the world is and outward administrations of the same is the soule also as the fish Polypus that Pliny mentions that alwayes is of the same colour with the Rock by which she lies Now God comes and crucifies her to this life drawes her

within from without or round about them and our Apostle might the better presse this upon others as having in so great measure attained it in his owne person as we read in Rom. 8. latter end Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation distresse nakednesse famine c. nay in all these things we are more than conquerers and then adds I am perswaded that neither life nor death principallities nor powers things present nor things to come shall ever be able to seperate us from the love of God c. He like a wise Commander espies out the utmost strength of his enemies and surveying them in their number in their nature in their severall kinds and he is not one whit moved or shaken but standing firm upon his foundation concludes against them all that they shall never be able to separate him from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ So in 1 Cor. 16. 3. Watch y●● stand fast in the Faith quit you like men He speakes in military language for Christianity is a fight lest your enemies surprize you watch if they approach to an encounter stand ●ast retreat not at all if it comes to an engagement quit your selves like men So in Ephes 6. 13. Therefore put on the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whole Armour of Go● that yee may bee able to stand in the evill day and having done all to stand or having abolished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the strength of all enemies to stand First as good Souldiers they are to put on their armour next stoutly to make resistance and not to cease the fight till they had quite scattered their enemies and like conquerours keeping the field having done all to stand So often doth our Saviour encourage his Disciples to stand fast Matth. 24. 6. When you heare of warres and rumours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of warres see that you be not troubled Some Criticks observe that the word implies such a trouble as when Souldiers receive some sudden alarm what strange disquietments distraction confusion may then be seene but saith Christ be not you thus troubled let not these things amaze you or draw you off from the foundation of your repose and rest One place more I shall adde John 16. last These things I have spoken to you that in me you might have peace In the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheere I have overcome the world It is true you are to encounter with the troubles of the world but the world and every thing in the world that fights against your life and peace is overcome in me therefore be not you moved be of good courage notwithstanding all 1. For the clearing of the point we shal first shew you wherein a Christian is to shew forth his stedfastnesse of spirit 2. Secondly the way whereby God brings up the soule to it Then we shall acquaint you with the grounds and lastly apply all to our selves For the First a Christian is to shew forth this stedfastnesse in oppsition to those severall things which are apt to shake him 1. The First is the guilt of sin this hath brought many a precious soule under sad disquietments conflicts and agonies Job felt them and expresseth them Job 6. 4. For the arrowes of the Almighty are within me the poyson whereof drinketh up my spirit the terrours of God set themselves in array against me David felt them and elegantly describes them by that dismall appearance of things upon Mount Sinai at the delivery of the Law God came downe upon it in his Majesty and glory and then the Earth shooke the foundation of the hills moved there was seen also fire smoake and burning coales darknesse darke waters thunder lightning and thick cloudes of the skie All this the Prophet did finde spiritually in his own soul so dreadful and disquieting is the presence of God to the guilty conscience But now a Christian is to stand stedfast here to live above the feares of hell and wrath and amidst all that unworthinesse weaknesse sinfulnesse he beholds in himself yet to esteem himselfe in Christ perfectly righteous in the sight of God and so to be at peace The Apostle exhorts to this Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw nigh with full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience c. Nothing more unfits the soule to draw nigh to God than an evil conscience a conscience under the workings of guilt and feare of wrath not that we exclude mourning for sin such mourning as flowes from faith and calls not the soule off from the true foundation 2. The Second thing which is apt to disquiet the soule is the temptations of Satan he is an unquiet turbulent spirit and is still seeking to draw the soule off from the Centre of her rest and peace and though he cannot rob her of her inheritance in God yet he makes her to posesse it with as much trouble as he can Disorder and ataxy are the very basis of his Kingdom when every thing is brought backe to its proper place then doth his Kingdome fall Christ told his Disciples that Satan desired to winnow them as wheat Luke 22. 31. wheat is not winnowed without much moving and shaking Now a Christian is to stand fast against Satan to resist him stedfast in the faith to 1 Pet. 5. 9. 1 John 5. 18. keep himself that the wicked one may not touch him And thus he doth when he stands upon his foundation when he lives above with God and in God he hath Satan under his feet though he cast his fiery darts at him yet they are all quenched and hurt him not But when hee comes from his foundation and parlies with him and consents to his suggestions then is he wounded by him The Devill could not touch Christ because hee abode stedfast in the Godhead and the will of the Father hee set the Lord alwayes before him and kept Satan behind him Psal 16. 8. Mat. 16. 23 and so conquered Had our first parents done thus they had not fallen but they turning their eyes from God and his will and fixing it upon the temptation were bewitched and fell 3. The third thing that is apt to disquiet the soul is the Law When it was delivered the Earth shook the people trembled and Moses himselfe said I exceedingly feare and quake This is the naturall effect of the Law to cause earthquakes and shakings in the Soule When a poore Christian lookes upon the purity and strictnesse of the Law pointed with wrath curse against the least transgression as also the holinesse justice and majesty of the law-giver and his own vilenesse and filthinesse he is then ready to quake and tremble and say with those men of Bethshemesh Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God 1 Sam. 6. 20. But yet looking up to that free estate to which he is advanced in Christ having the Law with all its

instead of rasing her hee shall suffer her to fall yet lower and lower in ste ad of makeing up her breaches they seem still to grow wider and wider and she is speaking as the Jewes Jer. 8. 15. Wee looked for peace but no good came and for a time of health but behold trouble And the whole course of Providence speakes as if God had quite cast her off Now all this while to stand fast to rest confident of Sions prosperity and glory and that all these strange administrations shall be made serviceable thereunto this is the worke and duty of Saints David though a man raised up on high yet professeth that when he viewed the strange methods of Providence His feet were almost gone his steps had welnigh ●lipt Psal 73. 2. It was a strange work that Abraham was called unto to offer up Isaac which was not alone his onely sonne his beloved sonne the sonne of his old age but the sonne of the promises in whose seed all the nations of the earth were to be blessed so that Abraham by such an act might seem to undoe the world yet he did it without staggering being strong in faith And so God brought his people out of Egypt into Canaan by a strange series of providence so that they were all shaken and offended but Joshua and Caleb who followed after God and stood stedfast The seventh and last thing that is apt to shake and remove the soule from her foundation is strange Doctrines these are said To tosse to and fro Ephes 4. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To carry about Heb. 13. 9. To shake as a ship upon the waves 2 Thess 2. 2. To turn aside 1 Tim. 1. 6. Now here a Christian is to shew his stedfastnesse to stand firm upon the Rock of truth whilst strange doctrines like so many impetuous waves are beating upon him and breaking themselves to pieces against it till at last they are turned into meere froth and foame A Christian indeed is alwayes to be in motion and advancing higher in the Spheare of Christianity but it must be still upon the Rocke and in the straight line of Truth Thus have we finished the first particular The next is to shew you the meanes whereby GOD brings up the Soule to this Heroick and Princely frame and he doth it by a double act of Illumination and Mortification 1. Of Illumination He enlightens the soule to see himselfe as he appeares in Christ to see the gracious designes of God upon her and the glory of the Godhead breaking forth into her through him doth thus establish her 1. It establisheth her against the guilt of sinne she beholds God himselfe become her righteousnesse and in that righteousnesse justifying accepting adopting yea embracing and kissing her And now the Chaines of her bondage are falling off the dark night of her feares passing away and the stormes of divine wrath and of her own troubles sweetly blown over yea she findes such a calmnesse and tranquillity such peace passing all understanding possessing and filling all her powers as none can comprehend but those that have felt it This is that white stone with the new name which none know but those that Rev. 2. 17. Gal. 4. 6. receive it This is the cry and witnesse of the Spirit these are the speakings of Christs blood in the soule and the sprinkling Heb. 12. 24 of the heart from an evill conscience Heb. 10. 22 2. This doth establish her also against Satan and his temptations for in this appearance of God in Christ to her she doth not onely in the letter and in the notion but truly and really in the Spirit behold her selfe a conquerour over Satan yea trampling him under her feet Yea she beholds herselfe so embraced in the arms of mercy so infolded in the bosome of Love and Grace so setled upon the Rock of eternity that Principalities and Powers the gates of Hell shall never bee able to pull her away or to prevaile against her Paul seeing this in that Rom. 8. makes his Challenge against all enemies who shall ever separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ So that though Satan casts his fiery darts and followes her with his temptations yet upon this account she is fully established and at peace 3. This appearance of God in Christ doth establish her also against the Law For why She now seeth herselfe translated out of that old estate over which the law had dominion We know the law it was made with the first Adam and whiles we grow upon him as our root while we continue in union and marriage with the Old Man and the flesh we are under the law but now in this appearance the soule seeth her selfe married to a new Husband the old Man being crucified and the old match dissolved upon the Crosse of Christ and now she is no longer under the law of her former husband as the Apostle doth c●early speak this Rom. 7. 1 2 3. He first doth lay down the metaphor of the woman being under the law of her husband while her husband liveth and her freedome from that law when her husband is dead and then applies it v. 4. Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ that yee should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead Upon the Crosse of Christ the old man the first husband to us all was crucified that we might be no longer under the law to him but be free to marry to and come under the law of another husband even him who is raised from the dead Now in this divine appearance of God in Christ the soule doth indeed see this mystery and so is established against the law so that now this law of Christ which is the law of love and the Spirit prevailing it swallowes up all other lawes into it selfe and the whole man is under the command of it In this appearance of God in Christ the soule is also established against the feare of death for hereby shee beholds the sting of death removed and her selfe made one with the Fountain of life and by death to be brought into the most intimate conjunction with it 5. In this appearance is the soule established also against the world And first against the frownes of it hereby she beholds God himselfe become her buckler and shield hiding her in his pavillion taking her into the secret of his tabernacle and standing on her side and therefore feares not the frownes and threats of the world This did so confirm David that hee saith His heart should not feare even though an host encamped against Psal 27. him Though they may touch his outward man yet that which is most properly himselfe as a Saint they cannot reach As Philo reports of Anaxarchus that being brought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo p. 682. under tortures to confesse a secret he spake thus You may beat

is he that lives most directly upon his foundation lives in greatest conquest over his lusts and so most at liberty The second place of reason is from the Honour of Reason 2 Christ we cast a deep stain upon his glory when wee stand not fast 1. We dishonour him in his Sufferings yea in all his great transactions for us in the flesh when we stand not fast He hath sweat bled died rose again that he might bring us into a state of Conquest over all our enemies and having conquered them for us he calls us as Joshua did Josh 10. 24. the men of Israel in the type to set our feet upon their necks and triumph over them Now what dishonour is this to Christ if we shal flie before these enemies that he hath thus conquered You know of whom it was said Hanniball that he knew how to conquer but not how to use his conquests We improve not our victory aright if we stand not fast if we keep not those enemies still under us that have been conquered for us 2. We dishonour him in his Spirit that Spirit which was in Christ and brought him off with conquest in all his agonies conflicts and sufferings he hath given to dwell in the heart of every Christian that it might bring them up into the same victory When therefore we suffer our selves to be overcome we grieve we dishonour that victorious that * So that word may bee read 51. p. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 princely Spirit which dwells within us doth not this speak that there is more power in Satan to destroy then in this Spirit to save that he that is in us is lesser then he that is in the world 3. We dishonour him in his truth how doth the Gospel suffer when those that professe it stand not fast how doe the enemies of the Gospel triumph over the truth Religion Gospel all when Christians fall Lactantius professeth that he saw in Bithynia a chiefe Ruler boasting tanquam barbarorum gentem aliquam subegisset as if he had overcome some great Nation when he had made but one poore Christian renounce his profession which Lact. lib. 5. cap. 11. he had for two yeares stoutly maintained against all his tormentours And I remember it is an argument that he much insists upon to prove the truth of the Christian religion by viz. the constancy and unmovablenesse of Christians Eadem ubique patientia idem contemptus mortis c. 4. We dishonor him in his alsufficency as if he could not protect us against all evil and supply us with all good as if we might finde some good in the creature which is not in himselfe for if that we finde all fulnesse here why then doe we not stedfastly abide in him From the end of the Gospel there are three things Reason 3 that will much establish the heart faith hope and joy and the Gospel is said to be written to worke all these in us First joy 1 Joh. 1. 4. These things we write unto you that your joy may be full Secondly faith 1 Joh. 5. 13. These things we write that you may beleeve on the name of the Son of God Thirdly hope Rom. 15. 4. That we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope But there are especially three things revealed in the Gospel which will establish the soule John 16. ult 1 Cor. 15. penult 1. In the Gospel is revealed our conquest in Christ over all our enemies and may not this be a strong bulwark to establish the soule against all their assaults that she hath to doe with conquered enemies By this the Roman Generall sought to put new courage into the ●cipi● hearts of his Soldiers telling them Cum iis est vobis hodie pugnandum quos priori bello terrâ marique vicistis you are to encounter with those to day whom in a former battle you conquered both by Land and Sea 2. In the Gospel is revealed that sweet fellowship wee 1 John 1. 3. have with the Father and the Son And what will more tend to establish the soule in all conditions than this that shee is made one with power wisdome life and happinesse it self and beholding the infinite God giving himself to be her shield reward and portion As God to quiet the heart of Abraham when he had left countrie kinred lands all to follow him tells him Gen. 15. 1. I am thy shield thy exceeding great rewara Emptinesse is as fulnesse losse as gaine poverty as riches death as life nothing as all things to that soule that hath heard such language from heaven 3. In the Gospel is revealed the hope of our caling that inheritance imortall incorruptible undefiled reserved for us in the heavens 1 Pet. 1. 4. and this being seen will carry on the soule with stedfastnesse and invincible resolutions to the possession of it It was Canaan that the Israelites had in their eye that encouraged them to walke through the midst of the Sea through a land of drought of desarts and pits and the shaddow of death The recompence of reward Moses had in his eye which made him neither to decline by the flatteries of the Court nor the afflictions of the Church The incorruptible crowne was in the eye of Paul which made him not to faint in his race and to keep his body under and in subjection 1 Cor. 9. latter end yea to glory in the crosse of Jesus Gal. 1. 4. The joy set before Christ made him to endure the crosse and to despise the shame Heb. 12. 2. Thus you have an account of the Reasons The main part of the Sermon is yet behinde which lies in the bringing of all these thruths home to our owne hearts and that we now are addressing to in the strength of Christ From what hath bin said may not every soul here present Use 1 weepe mourne and bleed afresh before the Lord this day Could I have insisted upon any Point that speakes out so much to our shame and debasement that may lay us lower in the dust than this I am now upon who is there that may not take up a sad lamentation over the instability of his owne heart and its cursed declinings from the true foundation every day When men take an account of their stature in Christianity by the performance of some externall duties and the avoiding of grosse and scandalous sins by the goodlinesse of their profession c. They are ready to say as the young man in the Gospel Master what lack I yet But if they lay themselves in this Ballance measure themselves by this rule try themselves by this touchstone Oh how exceeding light short and corrupt will they be found This is that which God so sadly complaines of in his owne people Psal 78. 7 8. They are a rebelious generation a generation that set not their hearts aright and whose spirit was not stedfast with God And ver 37. Their heart

was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his covenant And ver 41. They turned backe and tempted God c. Unstedfastnesse is the retreat of the soule from her true foundation playing fast and loose with God And may not we all joyne in with God in these complaints over our own hearts and cry out with the Prophet Psal 19. 12. VVho can understand his errors we may as easily know the way of an Egle in the aire the various windings and turnings of a Serpent upon a Rocke the motion of a Ship upon the wide Sea as to track and finde out the way of this adulterous woman THE FLESH in all her secret and whorish departings from God It is a thing to wonderfull for us Therefore the Prophet Jeremiah looking into the heart of man concludes that of all deceitfull things it is most deceitfull and so deceitfull as none can know it but infinite wisdom God himself Jer. 17. 9. the words there in the Hebrew run thus The heart is a supplanter above all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things and sick This is the great sicknesse and distemper that it labours under that it is so full of unquietnesse tumbling and tossing up and down running from creature to creature and no where can finde rest because it seekes it not in God Oh that we had eyes to see this sicknesse and hearts to weepe over this wounde that is yet unhealed bleeding fresh in our soules to this day Oh how exceeding apt are we to be affrighted or allured from God and our worke and duty What by carnall feares what by carnallhopes I feare the best of us live but little upon the true foundation although God hath given us in all the helps to establish us hath yeelded himselfe to the greatest advantage of our faith hath bound himself to us and us to himself in all the bonds and obligations as may be yet these treacherous hearts of ours doe breake all bands asunder cast away all cords from them Philo a learned man among the Jewes speakes thus If thou wilt search into the bottome of thine heart and not superficially thou shalt finde it an hard matter to beleeve and rest stedfastly on God and he gives this reason * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo in lib. Quis rerum divinarum haeres fit because of that affinity and kinred and connaturalnesse that is betwixt us and mortall things which are apt to draw us to trust in them and therefore † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. to trust in God alone he saith it is the worke of a great and heavenly spirit The best of us have as well flesh as spirit and so far as we are flesh there is great suitablenes betwixt us and these earthly things and therefore they have such an atractive force in them to draw us from our standing and repose in God alone And yet alasse Sirs doe we know what we doe when we thus backslide from God and imbrace the creature doe not we goe from strength to weaknesse from light to darknesse from fulnesse to amptinesse from truth to lies from all things to a meere nothing And can wee looke upon this with dry eyes unbroken hearts and faces not covered with shame Oh let it be your work this day to see this and lament it and I shall freely beare you company as I have cause in it And Right Honorable let me desire you also to deale uprightly with your selves and ingenuously-search into your own hearts and see whether you may not have cause to joyn in with us in the same work also I confesse you have been put upon as great trials as ever any Parliament or such a Society of men was sometimes God hath raised you up into a very high estate and that estate was not without its tentations and sometimes you have bin thrown down again as low and that estate hath had its tentations also Sometimes the whole Kingdom hath seem'd to be with you or under you sometimes as wholy against you Now amidst all these tumblings of the Kingdom these different complexions of the times have you bin stedfast still the same kept your selves close to the true principles upon which you and the wel-affected in this Kingdom first engaged in this Cause Though the people mobile vulgus have in themselves bin inconstant sometimes for you sometimes against you yet have they stil had a fixed station in you that you have bin no whit diverted or discouraged in your indeavours to save them whilst they have bin seeking to destroy you and themselves also And give me leave Sirs in all humility and yet with all freedom as a Messenger from God to propound these few Quaeres to you which I desire you to make a faithful Answer of to that God that knowes you and is within you All instability is either in the Eye in the Heart in the Tongue or in the Hand And have you been unstable unstedfast in none of these 1. Have you been stedfast in your Eye or Ends that from the very first day of your sitting your eye hath been still fixt upon the same common end the glory of God the publick advantage that as in the guiding of a Ship upon the Sea at the sametime we mey see manus ad clavum oculos ad coelum hands guiding the Rudder eyes fixt upon the heavens so while your hands have been upon the Rudder steering the torn Ship of this Common-wealth upon a raging Sea ● have you had your eyes fixt upon an heavenly end Or have they not sometimes at least been looking a-squint and rolling aside to some private end and interest of your own 2. Have you been stedfast in your Hearts or affection Have they been firm and born up stoutly against all opposition and discouragements that you have met with in that great worke which hath been under your hands Or have you not been closing at least some of you with indirect meanes for your own security in case the Cause should miscarry 3. Have you been stedfast in your Tongue or Language I mean in your debates and votes that still in all the changes of the times they have savoured of as much zeale justice resolution as ever Or else have they not altered in the nature of them according to the present emergency of things abroad or the instigation of some private end or party at home 4. Have you been stedfast in your hand or actions have you not been drawn to act something out of fear or favour which hath not born proportion to some former proceedings Have not popular Arguments as the pleasing or displeasing the people been used or enter tained by you or some of you to decline former Conclusions and those setled upon good Foundations of Religion and Justice Not but that upon the Emergencie of things unseene there may and ought to bee a change in mens actions and resolutions when we change that wee may still be in